Arachno- Volume 1: A Knife in the Shadows
by Eeveefan13
Summary: While a spider has started to weave his web in New York, another weaves his web in Dallas. Like Peter Parker, Jeremy Isaacson was a socially awkward high school student who received powers from a spider bite. As a serial killer named "Sombra" runs rampant in Dallas, Jeremy begins his quest to bring the killer to justice. By any means necessary.
1. Prologue

A man stood in an alley, a bloodied knife in his hands and looming over the body of a man he had just killed. However, he suddenly felt a chill go down his spine.

He turned around and saw someone clinging to the wall behind him. He man was tall and wore a bodysuit and mask. It was black and red, with a black cobweb pattern extending throughout the red portion. A large white spider emblem with long slender legs was displayed of the torso. The red parts of the outfit took up most of the torso's front and the top of the outfit's sleeves. The sections on the top of the sleeves ended at a point while the gloves were black with red finger. In addition, the boots where red and had the cobweb pattern on them. The mask was completely red and seemed to be where the cobweb patter extending throughout the outfit originated from, along with having holes containing large yellow lenses resembling bug eyes.

"Who-"

"Are ya Sombra?" the man questioned, his voice fairly deep, booming, and monotone.

"No. I'm not." the killer gulped.

' _Knife wielder. Murderer. Slight fear in his voice, but the sight of me could just be intimidating him.'_ the man thought. _'This might not be the murderer I'm looking for, but he's still a murderer.'_

"Ya might not be Sombra, but you're still a murderer." he said. "I can't let ya run free."

The man dismounted the wall and landed in front of the killer. He rushed the killer, knocked the knife out of his hands, and then proceeded to snap his neck.

* * *

 **Arachno  
Volume 1: A Knife in the Shadows  
Prologue: The First Strand in the Web**

* * *

 _A week before…_

 _Franklin D Roosevelt High School had decided to send its students on a field trip to a genetics laboratory. A fifteen-year-old boy named Jeremy Isaacson held a good amount of interest, though not many would assume that because of how hard to read he usually was._

 _Jeremy was a tall, Caucasian boy with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. He wore a grey hoodie, a black T-shirt with thin grey horizontal stripes, blue jeans, and black sneakers. He took his pair of red headphones off his head and rested them on his shoulders._

" _So, how're you holding up?" a feminine voice said from behind him._

 _The person behind him was Raven Rios, someone Jeremy had been friends with since elementary school. She was a Hispanic girl with fairly dark skin and black hair and eyes. She wore a black sleeveless shirt, red plaid skirt that reached to her knees, and red shoes._

" _I'm fine." Jeremy said._

" _Okay. Just checking to make sure you're fine." Raven said. "I know that crowds aren't your thing."_

" _Alright. Thanks." Jeremy replied._

 _Jeremy never did well with loud and/or crowded areas. He had Asperger's Syndrome, a form of Autism, and issues with loud noises or crowds were a common trait with those types of people. Eye contact was a similar issue, in that Jeremy would often initially not look people in the eye and have to adjust his gaze to correct it._

 _The tour went at a decent pace, but when the group reached the exhibit on spiders, that was when the turning point for Jeremy's life appeared._

" _And here, we have two hundred and fifty-two specimens. Each spider was created using the DNA of various different species of spiders. Each one you see is unique." the tour guide explained._

" _So, they're like super-spiders?" said a student._

" _In a sense, yes."_

" _You said, two hundred and fifty-two, right? I counted only two hundred and forty-nine." Raven said._

 _As if on cue, a spider appeared in one of the tanks, having been camouflaged the whole time._

" _Now there's only two hundred and fifty."_

" _One must have gotten out... But don't worry, no species of venomous spiders were used in the creation of these specimens."_

 _The missing spider in question was above Jeremy and descended before eventually landing on the back of his neck and biting. Jeremy briefly and subtly shifted uncomfortably before quickly reaching for the back of his neck to brush the spider off._

* * *

 _The next day…_

 _It was morning and Jeremy was eating breakfast. His father, Arnold Isaacson, was sitting on a couch in the living room and watching the news on TV._

 _Arnold was a tall Caucasian man with blonde hair and blue eyes, like his son. He was a police officer who worked the night shift and had gotten home from work not too long ago, so he was still in uniform._

" _Just last night, a dead body was reported to the police department. Upon examination, the body belongs to a victim of yet another victim of the killer known as 'Sombra.'"_

" _Another one…" Arnold grumbled. "Elaine's not gonna be happy."_

 _Elaine was Arnold's wife and Ian's mother. She was a detective, and as of late, most of her time was devoted to solving the Sombra case._

" _For those of our viewers who don't know, 'Sombra' is a serial killer who has been running rampant in Dallas during the past three weeks. So far, no information has been found regarding the killer's identity. Some have gone so far as to compare Sombra to the serial killer Jack the Ripper."_

 _Jeremy's mind briefly went back to the time he had overheard his mother grumbling about the case and making that same comparison._

" _Anyone with information that could lead to the killer's identity being found is urged to come forward to the authorities immediately."_

 _Present day…_

* * *

The man had landed on a rooftop before taking off his mask, revealing Jeremy's face underneath. That spider bite had somehow given him the powers of a spider and he intended on using it to catch Sombra. After that, he would continue to use his powers to bring order and justice to the city; fighting gangs, stopping robberies, kidnappings, murders, and so on.

Arachno was what he decided to call himself.

And as Arachno, Jeremy would do whatever it took to bring peace to his city.

* * *

 **Alright, what do you guys think so far about this version of the story? Decided to take it into a new direction.**

 **So, for starters, Sombra will be the main antagonist of this volume. This volume will be shorter than the ones that'll follow it, but this one will mostly cover Arachno's origin story of sorts and be centered around the pursuit of a serial killer. The plot is going to be smaller-scale compared to what I have planned for the following volumes, particularly Volume 2.**

 **As for Jeremy's personality, he is going to be a complicated case. He will be one of those characters who believes their actions to be good but don't really understand why they might not entirely be. And he's not going to be an extremely serious and edgy character like Batman is; his autism-induced social awkwardness will provide some humor to his character. But it won't be entirely played for laughs, mind you.**

 **Anyway, I'm actually looking forward to the end of this volume. I have a lot planned for Sombra and I can't wait for you guys to see it.**

 **So, leave a review. Constructive criticism will be accepted. Flames will be used to make s'mores. See ya!**


	2. Chapter 1

Jeremy sat in a part of the school that not very many people went to. This was where he normal went before school, for it was usually quiet and decently close to Jeremy's first period class. His headphones were worn on his head and his music was the only thing that he could hear at the moment.

 _Start playing old time rock 'n' roll  
Call me a relic, call me what you will  
Say I'm old-fashioned, say I'm over the hill  
Today' music ain't got the same soul  
I like that old time rock 'n' roll_

"Hey!"

Jeremy stopped the music before taking his headphones off and looking towards the source of the voice.

Jason Jones was Jeremy's best friend since kindergarten. He was a Caucasian fifteen-year-old with a quite feminine appearance, much to his dismay, along with brown hair and blue eyes. He wore a red T-shirt, light brown shorts, and red tennis shoes.

"So, how've you been?" Jason asked.

Jason's voice was a good bit more masculine than his appearance. It was enough for people to immediately recognize that he was a man.

"Good." Ian responded.

"You hear about that vigilante that showed up last night? Arachno, I think."

It was five days since Jeremy had started using his newfound powers to fight crime. Within the first night, word of his spread quickly. Criminals who believed that such a person could be running around in Dallas were terrified. They hadn't expected for a superhero to show up in the city, believing that all the superpower-related craziness would stay in New York. Most people, be they civilian, police officer, or criminal, didn't believe that there was a superhero in Dallas.

Until the night before, at least, when Arachno foiled a bank heist and was caught on video doing so. That video spread like wildfire over social media. Then, gasoline was poured on it when another video surfaced showing him singlehandedly breaking up a fight between two gangs. That same night, several more crime scenes were found with criminals knocked out and/or webbed to the floors, ceilings, or walls.

Suffice to say, Arachno overnight wound up being the talk of the city.

"Yeah. I did." Jeremy said.

Jeremy was indifferent to the attention. It just meant that people knew he existed. So what?

"How come you aren't excited at all?" Jason asked.

"Is it really somethin' worth gettin' worked up 'bout?" the tall boy responded.

"But there's a superhero in Dallas now!" the girly-looking boy said, exasperated.

' _Which means supervillains will inevitably show up. While me being Arachno will eventually cause that problem to rear its head, I will deal with it later. Besides, I'm mostly doing this so that Sombra can get caught.'_

* * *

 **Arachno  
** **Volume 1: A Knife in the Shadows** **  
Chapter 1: A Day in the Life**

* * *

That night, a few thugs were standing guard at their hideout. Their hideout was located in one of the bad spots in the city, so gangs were common around there. Thus, guards were an absolute necessity because you never know when one gang might decide they'd like control over the area.

"So, that Arachno guy's real, huh?" said a thug. "Seems that rumor about how the Bronze Vipers got taken out has some truth to it."

"Tch. The guy's just a bug. He won't last long." said the other.

A man wearing a fancy, black, three-piece suit and fedora began walking towards the thugs. He was obviously a Hispanic man with black hair and brown eyes. In his hand, he held a silver briefcase with a black king chess piece printed on it. Around four men in similar attire were following close behind him, with two more at his side.

"Buenos noches, señores." the man said as he removed his fedora, his voice containing a heavy Spanish accent. "I am here to see your boss."

"Nuh-uh. We ain't letting no one through." one thug stated.

"Then, that's a shame. I was simply wishing to be polite about this."

The men at his side drew their pistols and shot the thugs guarding the door before the men in the pack of the group went to open it. The group continued through the door before the men keeping it open closed it and retook their position in back.

The men walked into a spacious area. The boss of the gang sat in a desk situated in the center of the room. The man leading the group of black-suits walked up to the desk and placed the brief case on it.

"I am here representing the Black King." The man said.

"He wishes to take control of this area and demands that you disband your gang. You also have the option to join his organization. If you cooperate, you will be paid handsomely. If you accept this offer to join, the pay will be doubled."

"I don't take orders from anybody." The gang boss said sternly.

One of the man's bodyguards then whispered into his earpiece. "They've refused our offer."

The man then took a pistol out and shot the gang leader as several more gangsters barged into the hideout and began shooting at the other gangsters. Within mere minutes, all of the members of the gang owning the hideout were dead. The man then spoke into his earpiece.

"This is Aguilar. Los Tigres have declined our offer."

" _Did you make sure to eliminate them?"_

"Si, señor."

* * *

In another part of the city, Jeremy was busy pursuing a bunch of jokers who thought it would be funny to steal a cop car, cover it graffiti, and then take it for a joyride while leaving the sirens on. He himself felt offended because his father was a police officer. Thus, the jokers didn't last long when Arachno was on their tail.

Arachno landed on the hood of the car, scaring the driver. The driver began swerving in an attempt to throw the vigilante off, but to no avail. Jeremy began webbing the windshield up, eventually causing the driver to hit the breaks for fear of getting in a fatal crash. The car screeched to a halt and the punks inside got out and began trying to attack the vigilante.

One swung at Arachno with a baseball bat, trying to trip him up. Jeremy jumped over the bat before jumping at and rebounding off him before landing near another punk. He tripped that punk and then webbed him down. Another tried stabbing him with a knife, but his arm was caught and he was then kneed in the gut. The spider-powered hero then uppercut that one, knocking him out. Another punk rushed him and tried swinging a baseball bat down on him. The bat was caught and a knockout punch was delivered to the punk's face.

Seeing that his work was done there, Arachno shot a webline at a nearby building and swung away. He continued swinging until he heard his phone go off. He landed on a rooftop and pulled his phone out. Jeremy had figured out how to get his phone hooked up to 911 and would be notified whenever a crime occurred. He had also figured out how to turn these messages off so that his phone wouldn't be going off while 'off the job' and blow his cover.

"A bank robbery… Should be easy." Jeremy said before putting his phone away.

Within a little over a week of crimefighting, Jeremy had already encountered a criminal who annoyed him more than anything in the world. His name was Jimmy Oswald, but Jeremy called him Captain Copper because he would, for whatever stupid reason, only steal coins when he committed robberies. Jeremy was certain that the man had a coin fetish or something, but considered Jimmy to be an idiot because of the lengths the guy would go to satisfy his apparent coin fetish.

Yet, that idiot had somehow escaped jail continuously and the boy had captured him three times already. This was the third time that coin fetishist had escaped and thus the fourth time Jeremy had the displeasure of encountering him!

Arachno grumbled about the bank robber's idiocy while walking towards the unsuspecting Captain Copper. He stopped behind the idiotic robber and tapped him on the shoulder, prompting him to turn around.

"Arachno! We meet again, my neme-" Captain Copper was the knocked out with a punch to the face.

"I am not yer nemesis, ya idiotic coin fetishist!" Arachno yelled before lifting Captain Copper over his shoulder and carrying him away. "C'mon. Let's get ya back to jail."

* * *

Meanwhile, a man was walking through the city when he passed by an alley. Suddenly, something was behind him and dragged him into the alley. Using a knife, the figure slit the man's throat and began to cut him open.

* * *

 **And there's a glimpse of Sombra.**

 **And before anyone asks, Captain Copper will never become a serious threat. I am considering the idea of giving him a form of magnetism...that somehow only attracts coins. Don't ask me how that's possible.**

 **Speaking of superpowers, most of the actual supervillains won't show up until next volume. Sombra may or may not have powers. Regardless, supervillains will be making appearances eventually.**

 **Leave a review. Constructive criticism will be accepted. Flames will be used to make s'mores. See ya!**


	3. Chapter 2

**I'm sorry this took me so long to get around to updating. Please enjoy anyway.**

* * *

Elaine Isaacson walked into her office and sat down. She had just gotten back from investigating another Sombra murder. Apparently, a dead body was laying cut open in an alley before someone decided to see what was causing the horrid stench in that alley. The dead body was reported to police and Elaine was sent with a few other police officers to check it out.

Elaine was a woman in her early forties and looked like an older female version of Jeremy with brown hair rather than dirty blonde. She wore a brown suit jacket, white button-up shirt, black tie, light brown slacks, and black shoes.

"So, how'd it go?" asked a deep voice.

The voice belonged to a friend of Elaine's, Ulysses Ulrich. They had known each other since their days at the Academy. Ulysses was a tall, Caucasian man with blue eyes. He usually kept his head shaved and wore clothing similar to Elaine's. Such manner of dress was the unofficial uniform of the detectives working in the Dallas Police Department.

"No more clues than the last murder." Elaine said, disappointed.

"A shame. Don't worry, though. Sombra'll get cocky one of these days and get caught because of it."

"But how long until they do? They'll probably kill off half the city before they slip up, at this rate."

"You're exaggerating, Elaine." Ulysses responded.

"But good God! It's like we're Scotland Yard chasing Jack the Ripper!" Elaine yelled as she threw her hands up.

* * *

 **Arachno  
** **Volume 1: A Knife in the Shadows** **  
Chapter 2: Crawling in the Night**

* * *

"You think that Sombra might be a ghost or something?"

"What? That's ridiculous!"

Jeremy had stopped to listen to some guys' conversation. It was just a little bit before school, so he had time to stop and eavesdrop.

"Well, why haven't they been caught?"

"They're probably just a supervillain of some kind. A d*** terrifying one."

"Could be an ghost. Or an alien."

"Don't exist."

"But what about Thor? He's a god. And New York City was attacked by Loki last year."

"But we've seen Thor and Loki. But not aliens and ghosts." **(1)**

"You said something similar about gods before."

Jeremy continued on, seeing how listening to that conversation wouldn't really give him any useful information. He inwardly chastised himself for thinking some rumors could help him figure out Sombra's identity because of how outrageous and exaggerated they could get. That said, it did make a little bit of sense. If gods were real, what about aliens and ghosts? But Sombra being either one of those was something Jeremy considered extremely unlikely. He heard a few more conversations as he continued walking, but those sounded like an unintelligible mess to him because of how many different conversations were being held at the same time. They were probably irrelevant and of no concern to him anyway. He groaned before putting his headphones on and turning the music on.

' _So loud and obnoxious.'_

The boy eventually sat down near his fifth period class. The school worked on an A/B day schedule, meaning there were four, ninety-minute class periods each day. On B days, fifth period served as first period. He would normally head to his first class of the day and wait when it was almost time for the day to start.

 _'There are several possibilities as to what Sombra's identity is. The investigation could be taking so long because they are somehow inside the police force and are tampering with anything that could be used to make progress in the investigation. But it would be unwise to raise that possibility. It would turn the police department into Salem if that gets out. And it's purely speculation anyway. They could simply just be extremely sneaky.'_

 _'But an actual supervillain on the other hand... That seems much more likely.'_ Jeremy thought as he stroked his chin.

"Hey."

Jeremy was snapped out of his thoughts and looked to see Raven starting to sit down next to him.

"So how've you been?" Raven asked.

"I've been okay." Jeremy responded.

"That's good."

"How're you?" he then asked.

"I've been fine." Raven then groaned. "I had a hard time falling asleep last night. Trent ran into traffic on the way back from work and my parents were really freaking out. They've been losing their minds ever since Sombra got one of mom's co-workers."

Trent was Raven's older brother. He was seventeen-years-old and currently in his junior year.

"Hard not to be paranoid. Someone runnin' around killin' people an' managin' to successfully evade detection." Jeremy said. "Mom's been workin' her butt tryin' to figure out just who's behind it all."

"So, I won the bet." Raven then switched the subject.

"Wait, really?" Jeremy said.

It was getting very close to prom. Jeremy and Raven had started a bet on how long it would take since the announcement for a guy to ask Jason out thinking that he was a girl. Raven had said less than a week while Jeremy had said more than a week.

Jeremy then handed Raven $10.

"You should have seen it." Raven started giggling. "Jason went as red as a tomato and then the guy deflated like a popped balloon when he found out Jason's true gender."

Jeremy started laughing at that.

"And... And he even bought just this BIG teddy bear too! That's so much money gone down the drain."

Jeremy then laughed even harder.

"So, has anyone asked you?" Jeremy then asked. "I mean, I know we're sophomores, but there was this one girl in one a' my other classes whose boyfriend was a junior an' he asked her out to prom."

"No. And even then, I wouldn't accept it. There's this one guy I like, but he's a sophomore too. So, maybe next year." Raven stated.

"You're a nice girl, Raven. I hope he'll appreciate that." Jeremy said kindly, completely oblivious to any possible implications of her statement.

Raven was now struggling with the urge to facepalm, thinking that said implications could have been seen from miles away.

* * *

That night, Arnold and some other officers were investigating the scene of a crime. There were bodies laying on the ground, each of them with bullet wounds and the word 'Sombra' carved into their skins.

"What's happened, officer?"

Arnold was startled and quickly turned around to see Arachno behind him.

"You scared me." Arnold said.

"Sorry 'bout that." Arachno apologized.

"It's fine." Arnold shook his head. "But anyway, another Sombra murder. But I think it's a fake. All the bodies have bullet holes."

Arachno was gawking at how stupid the apparent impostor was. "That idiot. Sombra's victims all had knife wounds, not bullet holes. And on top a' that, he very well may piss the _real_ one off."

"But that's just perfect!" he then exclaimed. "We now might have some bait to lure Sombra out. Hopefully this idiot wasn't as thorough with clean up an' we can get some fingerprints or somethin'."

"You're right." Arnold said. "That might just work. But the hard part's trying to figure out how to pull it off."

"Well, at least we have some idea on how to catch them."

* * *

After leaving that crime scene, Arachno went back to patrolling the city. As he was web swinging, he eventually heard someone call out to him. Figuring that person might be someone in need of help, he went to him.

"What's the trouble, sir?" Arachno asked.

The man quickly looked around to make sure no one was paying attention.

"I'm an informant the police planted in the Apocalypse Gang." the man said, keeping his voice low so as to not attract attention. "They're planning to attack another gang, the Crimson Skull Gang, at 10:30. Says it's to send that Black King guy a message. The Crimson Skulls started working for him, according to rumor."

Arachno nodded.

"I've already let the police know about this, but I figured I'd try to find you and let you know about this. Make things go a bit smoother, y'know?"

"Got it. Where're they plannin' to attack?" Arachno inquired.

* * *

So, the informant gave Arachno directions to the place where the Crimson Skull Gang was going to be meeting that night, which was by extension where the Apocalypse Gang was going to ambush them. It was at a construction site, which made sense considering that almost no one ventures into those. Arachno crouched on one of the beams composing the incomplete building, turning on his invisibility so no one can see him. For him, this was mostly practice to get better at holding his invisibility for longer periods of time.

A few minutes passed by and eventually some figures showed up at the site. Jeremy was able to identify these newcomers as members of the Apocalypse Gang because of their very punkish appearance and the prevalence of green in their clothing.

"Whatchu lookin' at, s***heads? F*** off." one Crimson Skull member yelled.

The lead Apocalypse member then smacked him in the temple with a bat.

"We've heard you's been workin' for the Black King now. Well, he's been tryin' to take our turf." the punk said. "We don't like that. So, we gonna kick the s*** outta you guys to send 'im a message."

While the exchange was going on, Arachno was sneaking around and taking out the gangsters present. Then, some of them pulled out guns and started shooting each other. Jeremy continued to take out the gangsters as stealthily as he could and eventually found that he wouldn't be able to do that to the remaining ones. So, he jumped in to the fray.

"Holy s***! Where'd he come from?" one Apocalypse gangster yelped.

"I've always been here." Arachno said before punching that gangster in the gut. "Be a little more observant to yer surroundings."

That Apocalypse member was then shot in the back by a Crimson Skull member, killing him. The vigilante then leaped towards that same Crimson Skull member and pounced on him before webbing him to the ground. The spider-hero then backflipped to avoid more gunshots before landing and dodging some more bullets. He then went invisible to move undetected and ambush another gangster. Although Arachno could attack at any moment, the Apocalypse and Crimson Skull members went back to attacking each other. Then, a Crimson Skull member was sent hurtling through the air at one of his teammates before Arachno dashed towards an Apocalypse punk and knocked him out with a punch to the back of the head. The vigilante then leapt towards the last remaining Apocalypse punk before kicking him in the face. Almost immediately after landing, he quickly turned around shot a web line at one Crimson Skull member's gun before swinging it around and smacking him with it. Another web line was fired to the last one and he was pulled in for a knockout punch.

"I'm glad that spider bite somehow improved my reaction times. That would've been a nightmare otherwise." Jeremy sighed before hearing police sirens approaching. "Well, time to go."

A web line was fired towards a nearby building and Arachno took off.

* * *

 **(1)** \- In Earth-608, the Avengers' first meeting occurred in a similar manner to Earth-Prime. Loki attacked New York City but was beaten back by Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Ant-Man, and the Wasp. Captain America is still frozen in the Arctic while Hawkeye and Black Widow are currently with SHIELD and were not present at the time.

* * *

 **So, now there is a fake Sombra running around. The Black King's quest for supremacy in the underworld will be the main focus of Volume 2, but it will not have that much relevance in this volume. For now, he is just going to be Greater-Scope Villain, although he actually has no connection to Sombra. Sombra's operating on their own terms.**

 **We've also established that Raven has a crush on Jeremy, but he's clueless about it.**

 **Now for reviews.**

 **Devin sands: Yes, Jeremy does have organic webbing.**

 **So, leave a review. Constructive criticism will be accepted. Flames will be used to make s'mores. Jyaa-nee!**


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